Katharine Ludington: Fulfilling the Promise of the American Revolution

The Will of the People can never be expressed when only one half of that people have the right to express it. —Katharine Ludington

 At the bend of Lyme Street, where it meets Ferry and McCurdy Roads, stands Old Lyme’s South Green, a site central to the revolutionary doings of our town’s patriots in the 1770s. It was here that the Parsons Tavern stood, once home to Reverend Jonathan Parsons who preached resistance to Britain, and his sons Major General Samuel Holden Parsons and Colonel Marshfield Parsons, both veterans of the Revolutionary War. The South Green was likely the site of the Lyme Tea Party in 1774, and Lafayette quartered his troops there in 1778. Across the street still stands the home of John McCurdy, the richest merchant in Connecticut and a Son of Liberty who was called “the purse of the revolution”. Just up the road at the foot of Johnnycake Hill was the home of his good friend, Reverend Stephen Johnson, veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill and author of radical pamphlets that called for resistance to the British Stamp Act.              

Photo by Jan Franco

In this midst of all this is the Duck River Cemetery where the graves of McCurdy, Johnson, and Marshfield Parsons can be found, among those of other patriots such as Governor Matthew Griswold and Ezra Lee, a man “esteemed by Washington” for piloting America’s first submarine in 1776.  These heroic figures fought to establish a new nation—a nation not founded on tribe or religion, but on a shared philosophy—the enlightenment values of liberty and equality. At the edge of Duck River’s Ancient section lies the final resting place of Katharine Ludington, who fought to make that philosophy manifest and to fully realize the promise of those American values. Her elegant home still stands at the former site of the Parsons Tavern. For her life’s work, Ludington ranks as an equal among the greatest patriots of Lyme’s history.           

It’s hard to believe that within living memory racial segregation was legal in the United States, and that women were denied the constitutional rights that men enjoyed. Had the American Revolution been frozen in time and its promise of freedom not progressed and expanded throughout the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries, the American story would itself be a meaningless historical footnote today. The glory of our nation’s birth and the democratic values that are the foundation of civic life have been carried forth to us via the efforts of those who subsequently fought, sacrificed and shed blood to prove the truth of those values and extend them to all citizens, not just the elect few.  Thus, when we speak of Lyme’s native son David Ruggles and celebrate his memory, we acknowledge that his writings and acts of civil disobedience to challenge slavery and its institutions are an essential part of who we are as a nation.

Katharine Ludington, circa 1890

In the same vein, we celebrate suffragist and peace activist Katharine Ludington for her work in challenging the institutions that served to oppress women, and for her clear-eyed guidance through the questions that marked the 20^th century, from fairness in the nascent medium of broadcasting to the escalating horrors of the world wars and nuclear proliferation.           

Katharine “Kitty” Ludington was born October 16, 1869 in New York City. She was educated at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington and the Art Students League in New York, and became an accomplished portrait artist. Her work was exhibited in New York and at the annual Lyme Art Association exhibit. Though born in New York, Katharine’s true home was Old Lyme. Her father, Charles Ludington, built the stately home we see today at 2 Lyme Street, which served as the family’s summer residence but became her permanent home. Charles also funded the construction of the town’s library, named in honor of his mother-in-law, Phoebe Griffin Noyes, an influential figure in Old Lyme’s educational history. Katharine would serve as the library’s president in later years, was an early supporter of the Old Lyme Fire Department, and many other local organizations. The portrait she painted of her mother still hangs in the library today as a testimony to her upbringing and talent.           

Arthur Ludington as depicted by his sister Katharine Ludington.

The death of her brother in 1914 abruptly changed the course of Katharine’s life. Social reformer, philanthropist, and assistant to Woodrow Wilson—Arthur Ludington was a well-respected Princeton man and his sister absolutely adored him. His tragic death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound the day before he was to ship out as a World War I Red Cross volunteer shook Kitty to the core. Arthur’s close friend, future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, often remarked that Arthur’s untimely death was the catalyst that turned Kitty away from the arts and toward social activism. That same year she would dedicate herself to the cause of suffrage as a founding member of the Old Lyme Equal Suffrage League.  As the war ended, women’s suffrage which had been on the back burner among social activists due to the war effort, came back to the fore and Katharine redoubled her efforts. By 1918, she was the President of the Connecticut Suffrage League.           

In 1920, the women’s suffrage movement was on the brink of success, as 34 of the 35 states needed to approve the 19^thAmendment giving women the right to vote had already ratified it. If women were to vote in that November’s election, they would need to have that 35^th vote by September. As fate would have it, the 35^th vote came down to the state of Connecticut, and Katharine Ludington was suddenly in the national limelight.           

Katharine Ludington can be seen in the top left of this photo of the 1920 National League of Women Voters Board of Directors. Photo by the National League of Women Voters

Change came slowly in the Land of Steady Habits, and Connecticut Governor Marcus Holcomb was a man of tradition. While giving hints that he might support women’s suffrage, he nevertheless dragged his feet when it came time to call a special session of the legislature to ratify the amendment.   Hoping to persuade him, Katharine Ludington met with Republican National Committee chairman Will Hayes. Known for her gentility and charm, Kitty succeeded in convincing Hayes to issue a statement in support of the 19^th Amendment’s ratification. With this in hand, she redoubled her effort to move the intransigent Holcomb. Meanwhile, she faced vitriol in the press and was accused of Bolshevism and radicalism, neither of which was remotely true. Even in Old Lyme itself, there were a significant number of women who opposed suffrage. They would rather have the vote denied to themselves then offered to women who might vote for “radical” or leftist causes, and indeed many upper-class women feared that the suffragist movement was infused with socialists and trade unionists who would wreak havoc on the social order. Famously, Old Lyme’s grand dame of the arts, Florence Griswold, vehemently opposed women’s suffrage.  In the end, Connecticut failed to ratify the 19^th Amendment in time and it fell to Tennessee to cast the deciding vote in favor of suffrage.

Katharine knew that it was not enough for women to have the right to vote: If women were to participate in civic life as equals they must also understand the mechanics of government, become familiar with policy issues, and learn how to operate the levers of power.  In short, they must make up for lost time and become familiar with a world that men had heretofore ruled exclusively. The League of Women Voters was established to offer women the necessary tools for not only casting an informed ballot, but also running for office, serving in government, and excelling in administration.  The idea that she had first floated in 1919 was realized by the founding of the League of Women Voters in 1921, with Katharine Ludington sitting on the national board and serving as its New England director.             

Katharine Ludington in 1927 on the steps of the National League of Women Voters in Washington DC. Photo by National Photo Company.

Throughout the 1920s, Katharine continued as an LWV leader, and also took on broader national issues such as armament limitation. She met with a broad array of influential figures such as President Warren Harding, and joined the board of the National Education Foundation which stood for pacifism and educational opportunity for all. In 1928, she negotiated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to create guidelines for political broadcasts that would form the basis of the Fairness Doctrine and the Equal Time Rule which guided television and radio broadcasters in a non-partisan fashion until they were undone in the 1980s. Her essay “Democracy Goes on the Air” published in The Survey on June 15, 1928 is even more relevant today than when it was written nearly 100 years ago and we would do well to heed her words:

Each new invention must be caught and harnessed; there is always the chance that it will run amok.  While we were struggling to catch up with steam, electricity was put upon us; then the telegraph, the telephone, and now the radio, with beyond it a dizzy vista of television and who knows what other appalling annihilations of space and time. How to humanize these mechanisms, how to extract the most usefulness from them, how to provide against misuse—this is the task which must not be left to chance. 

 By the 1940s she became involved with the peace movement and exchanged correspondence with Albert Einstein in his efforts to stop nuclear proliferation. Most significantly, she was a moving force in the founding of the United Nations after World War II. In her later years, she settled into domestic life in Old Lyme but still remained active in the cause of peace and social justice, and frequently entertained prominent guests such as Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in her elegant home next to the Congregational Church.           

A National "Road to the Votes for Women" Historical Marker on the South Green. Photo by Conrad Ward

A historic plaque today fittingly marks Katharine Ludington’s home and outlines her accomplishments. Standing on the green, which also hosts a plaque for the Marquis de Lafayette, one is struck by the degree to which important events in American history have pivoted upon this spot. There’s a glacial erratic in the side yard of the Ludington House called “The Whitefield Rock,” where evangelist Reverend George Whitefield stood in 1745 to deliver a sermon that electrified the citizens of Old Lyme and split the Congregational Church between the “Old Lights” and the “New Lights”.   The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme and its minister Jonathan Parsons became dedicated New Lights, and Parsons would later become a revolutionary firebrand in the 1770s, for the New Lights of the Congregational Church had evolved from being a religious sect into a political party dedicated to the autonomy, and later full independence of the American colonies.              

Charles Ludington standing upon the Whitefield Rock, circa 1902. Lyme Historical Society Association

Katharine Ludington was born into a prominent and wealthy family, and could easily have lived a life of leisure, but chose instead to dedicate herself to the cause of Liberty.

Perhaps it was the example of the predecessors who lived, worked and acted upon these grounds, the Sons of Liberty and figures such as John McCurdy, Reverend Stephen Johnson, and Major General Samuel Holden Parsons that urged her on.  Or perhaps it was the example of her grandmother, Phoebe Griffin Noyes, who was an early pioneer in women’s education in Old Lyme, or her brother Arthur who was dedicated to social reform—or perhaps all of the above, and taken together it was the very essence of the society and family in which she was raised that inspired her to a higher calling and to dedicate her life to the causes of women’s suffrage, social justice, and world peace—advancing the cause of guaranteeing the inalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.  In short, to fulfill the promise of America.  Katharine Ludington’s memory and work lives on and she takes her rightful place in among the heroes in our Pantheon of Liberty.